The current cellular telephone, when equipped with position finding equipment, makes it possible for people to gain access to a variety of services such as emergency roadside assistance (ERA), personal emergency response (PER) service, vehicle tracking assistance (VTA), traveler information assistance (TIA), traffic incident management (TIM), and fleet management services, as well as a number of other services.
The above-identified applications include disclosures of automatic determination of the geographical position (in latitude and longitude) of a mobile user that serves as the address of the mobile user. The position information is derived from GPS satellite, commercial RF broadcasts such as AM and FM radio and television broadcasts or combinations thereof. This invention, in addition to providing the position or location information, provides an interface for easily providing for integration or combination of the position finding signals to the cellular telephone system and can be called position enhanced cellular services. In one embodiment, the enhanced cradle is provided with a recorder, data interface, and panic button alarm sub-interface which couples a standard car alarm and a unique panic button disclosed herein, in combination with the enhanced cradle for cellular telephone.
In a second embodiment, the enhanced cradle includes a concealed unit which includes a car alarm and panic button alarm interface, with a recorder and data interface being in a separate cradle. In this embodiment, the concealed unit and car alarm units are concealed under the dash or in another portion of the vehicle such as possibly in the trunk.
In a third embodiment, a unique car alarm and panic button alarm interface are in a unit which may be concealed under the dash or in the trunk of a car, and the cradle includes a recorder and a data interface. The receiver transmitter for the position locator and the position location circuitry are as disclosed in the above-referenced applications.
According to the present invention, the enhanced cradle provides features not found in typical mobile telephone cradles while preserving the functionality already present in such cradles. As discussed above, three primary features include:
A recorder which permits the operator to easily record and replay messages. When used in the vehicle applique unit (VAU), directions and instructions from the operator at a central station may be stored and then recalled for use at a later time. Both manual and remote control of the recording process may also be performed. Since this can easily be performed by one hand and without the driver taking his or her eyes off of the road, it is also a safety feature.
Secondly, a panic button/interalarm interface permits the status signals from a car alarm to be monitored by the cradle and used to notify authorities, via the cellular telephone, in the event of a vehicle theft or personal attack situation. The panic button may also be coupled via either the remote RF control activation or by mechanical switching. It is also possible to use this interface to pass commands to the car alarm for the purpose of configuration and control.
Thirdly, the data interface provides a two-way data flow path between a port on the cradle and a service center for the hybrid GPS/data link system as disclosed in the above-referenced application. This process is unique in that it uses the data-in-voice process of the system to pass low rate data. Signals within the mobile unit may be conveyed over audio lines (an RJ-11 like interface) or the control bus (RS232 like interface) of the mobile phone/VAU combination.